What is Waffle?
Waffle takes the coloured-letter idea from Wordle and turns it into a sliding puzzle. The board is shaped like a waffle: three words across and three words down, sharing their letters where they cross. All the right letters are already on the board, just in the wrong places, and green, yellow and grey colours tell you which ones are correct, which belong somewhere else in that word, and which don't belong there at all. Your job is to swap pairs of letters until every word is complete. The catch is that you only have a limited number of swaps, and the stars you earn depend on how many you have left at the end. That makes it a game of planning rather than guessing: one careless swap can cost you a star. Waffle was created by James Robinson in Portsmouth, England, and has grown into one of the most-played daily word puzzles. It suits Wordle fans who want something a little more strategic.
How to play
- Tap two letters to swap them. Green means right place, yellow means right word but wrong place.
- Complete all six words: three across and three down.
- Finish with swaps to spare. Each leftover swap is a star.
Quick facts
- Typical time
- 3–6 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Price
- Free to play, supported by ads.
- Account
- Not needed.
- Past puzzles
- Free. Every past Waffle is there, though replays don't count towards your stats.
- On a phone
- Works in your phone's browser. Nothing to install.
- Swaps
- You get 15. Every puzzle can be solved in 10, so a perfect game earns 5 stars.
Tips to get better
- Solve it in your head first. Before you swap anything, work out what each of the six words must be. The swapping is easy once you know where everything is going.
- Start at the crossings. A letter at a crossing belongs to two words, so it has to suit both. Those squares are the most restricted, which makes them the best place to begin.
- Look for double fixes. If one letter sits where another belongs, and the other sits where the first belongs, one swap turns both green. You need a few of these to finish in ten.
- Read yellow carefully. A yellow letter belongs in that row or column, but not in that square. At a crossing, yellow means it belongs in one of the two words, and you have to work out which.
- Count the letters. Everything on the board gets used. If your word needs a second E, check that a spare E really exists.
- Leave green alone. A green letter is already home. Moving it only costs you swaps.
Who it's for
Waffle is for Wordle players who would rather plan than guess. Nothing is hidden: every letter is in front of you, so a bad result is always your own doing, in a good way. Solving it is usually easy. Solving it with five stars is the real game, and it can turn a three-minute puzzle into fifteen.
